


Armchair Anthropology

by embarrassing old stuff from LJ pre-2015 (prevaricator)



Series: NEWS Robots AU [3]
Category: NewS (Band)
Genre: M/M, Robot Yamapi and Shige, questionable characterization
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-21
Updated: 2011-05-21
Packaged: 2018-10-15 19:53:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10556768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prevaricator/pseuds/embarrassing%20old%20stuff%20from%20LJ%20pre-2015
Summary: AU, sequel toFondness RoboticandModel Behavior. Yamapi has a thing for touching Koyama.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Repost from LJ

**Title:** Armchair Anthropology  
**Rating:** PG  
**Pairing:** Koyama/Yamapi  
**Warnings:** Robot Yamapi and Shige, questionable characterization  
**Word count:** 1520  
**Summary:** AU, sequel to [Fondness Robotic](http://oyakodon.livejournal.com/7101.html) and [Model Behavior](http://oyakodon.livejournal.com/7471.html). Yamapi has a thing for touching Koyama.

  
Yamapi never really stops wanting to touch Koyama. Partly, he thinks, he just likes physical contact; it gives him a calm, comfortable feeling. But he doesn't want to touch Shige nearly as much. There are complicated feelings there that he can't seem to categorize, and he finds himself almost afraid to try.

After being admonished not to touch people without asking, he's wary of broaching the subject again for a while, until he's seen enough human interaction to understand which situations require consent and which don't. Even then, different people seem to have different standards (as does Shige, who brushes him off when he tries to sling an arm around his fellow robot's shoulders), and Koyama had seemed a bit frightened the first time Yamapi touched him.

So he's surprised the first time Koyama initiates casual physical contact. They're both sitting on the couch, Koyama reading articles related to his research, Yamapi reading a novel because Koyama and Shige both seem to like reading.

Koyama shifts around a lot when he's sitting down, Shige says because humans' circulation is rather fragile, but he's moving around more than usual this time, looking up at Yamapi and biting his lip from time to time, almost fidgeting. Finally he turns so that his back is to Yamapi and leans against him, stretching his legs out along the couch.

Yamapi stiffens in surprise, and Koyama twists around to look at him.

“Is this okay? My legs were cramping up,” he says.

Yamapi just nods. He turns his eyes back to his book screen and reads the same paragraph a few times before giving up because it refuses to stick. All he really wants to think about is how pleasant it feels, having Koyama leaning on him. He feels light and fluttery, in a way that he thinks is strangely close to nervousness. But he doesn't want to move at all, and he's secretly happy when Koyama dozes off leaning on him.

He gets a funny look when Shige comes in an hour later to find him staring at the top of Koyama's head, but whatever he might have said is cut off by Koyama waking up and asking how his date with Massu was.

“It wasn't a _date_ , we were just shopping,” Shige says, scowling. Koyama laughs.

 

 

The next time he sees Koyama reading on the couch, Yamapi settles next to him with a book. He tries leaning against Koyama's shoulder, but it leaves his head in an odd position, so he squirms down so that he can prop his head on the shoulder instead. His new pillow shakes, and he looks up to see Koyama laughing at him.

“Comfortable?” Koyama asks.

“Yeah.”

With his ear against Koyama's shoulder, he can hear Koyama's heart beating, just a little. Without one of his own to compare it to, he doesn't realize it's going fast until it slows down. It speeds up a little a while later, just before Koyama's arm slips over Yamapi's shoulders, then slows again.

“Why does your heart speed up and slow down like that?” Yamapi asks, eventually.

It speeds up again, but Koyama hedges, “You can hear that? Your ears must be really good.”

“Probably,” Yamapi has never really thought about his ears before. He frowns, “But that doesn't answer my question.”  
  
“It can be for lots of reasons. It goes faster when I exercise, or when I'm nervous or excited or angry, and slower when I'm not moving and calm.”

Yamapi frowns. “Then which was it just now?”

It's going a mile a minute now, but Koyama just pokes his cheek and says, “That's for me to know and you to wonder about.”

He dislikes the implication that Koyama's keeping secrets from him, but he doesn't press the matter. He's starting to understand that some things may be better kept secret, mostly because now that he's here, he can't help but think how easy it would be to lean up and kiss Koyama, and he wonders how it would feel.

It becomes a regular occurrence for Yamapi and Koyama to lean all over each other when they're both on the couch. Koyama sprawls over Yamapi to stretch out, or because Yamapi is warm, and Yamapi tries to be as inconspicuous about enjoying it as he can. It's obvious he's failed in that respect when Shige asks them to stop snuggling all the time when he's around, it's gross.

If anything, the comment only encourages Yamapi to snuggle with Koyama more, just to bug Shige. But it makes him think–snuggling is something that people in relationships do. He hadn't realized that what he's been doing with Koyama was snuggling, and he wouldn't say that he's in a relationship with Koyama. But he also wouldn't say that he wouldn't want to be.

After the comment from Shige, he notices that Koyama seems tense, and his heart rate speeds up a lot more often when Yamapi leans on him. Still, he doesn't put an end to it.

 

 

The more he thinks about the way he feels around Koyama, the more a certain word comes to mind. It confuses him, something science-fiction stories like to say robots can't do (but they also say robots can't feel). And then he gets confused again, wondering if he isn't just programmed to think he has feelings and programmed to be in love with Koyama.

The thought gives him a bit of a headache. Afraid Shige will disapprove, he doesn't broach the subject with his fellow robot for a while, until eventually, lacking anyone else to talk to, he caves and mentions it to Shige one day while Koyama's at the lab, doing his actual research (Yamapi was almost hurt when he found out he and Shige were a side project, until Koyama detailed to him all the possible ways the researchers could prove robots had free will).

“There was an old philosopher who said, 'I think, therefore I am',” Shige says, after Yamapi has bumbled his way through trying to explain his thinking. “He was really trying to prove he existed or something, but I think it's the same idea. Maybe the fact that we can doubt our ability to think and have free will means we have it. Would a programmer program us to doubt it, if he was really just directing our feelings?”

It makes Yamapi's head spin, but he's glad to know that Shige, at least, has thought about this as well.

 

 

He's lying with his head in Koyama's lap one day, reading a mystery novel Koyama likes, with Koyama's fingers carding through his hair. It's soothing and distracting at the same time, and he decides to stop with the pretense of reading.

He sets the book on the coffee table. Koyama's fingers pause in his hair when he moves, but go back to what they had been doing when he rests his head on Koyama's knees again. Then one finger slides tentatively out of his hair and over his cheek, tracing a line down to his chin. It's trembling just a little, an action that was listed as a symptom of nervousness, along with increased heart rate, when Yamapi looked up the latter.

With some trepidation, he rolls onto his back and looks up at Koyama, sees the same trepidation in the way Koyama is biting his lip, eyes wide. Then Koyama's finger brushes over Yamapi's lips, and, hoping he's not misreading, Yamapi sits up and kisses him.

Koyama kisses back, and Yamapi thinks he can see why they make such a big deal of this on TV. Though he wouldn't want to do it in front of anyone, he thinks, it's too private. Or maybe he wants to do it in front of the whole world, he's not sure. But it feels nice, and soft, in contrast with the harsh beat of Koyama's heart, the fastest he's felt it yet.

He can feel Koyama's breath fluttering against his skin, thinks Koyama must be able to feel his own. It reminds him that Koyama's breath is to put oxygen into his system, while Yamapi's is simply a cooling mechanism, and another thing the novels and movies always seem to worry about is people being too different for relationships.

Koyama stops kissing him but doesn't pull away, leaning his forehead against Yamapi's instead and sighing. His hands are patting Yamapi's back in a tense, erratic rhythm. Where he'd normally be chattering away he's silent, and it sets Yamapi on edge.

“Can this ever work?” Koyama asks eventually.

Yamapi thinks about it. He's pretty sure Koyama means about him being a robot and Koyama not. All of the science-fiction novels he's read have come up with all sorts of problems about it. “It always does in the movies, in the end,” Yamapi replies with a smile.

Koyama gives him a small smile in response. “Yeah.”

He leans forward and brushes his lips against Yamapi's cheek. “I guess we'll just have to make our own movie then, won't we?”

 


End file.
